r and blazing flame to right and left.

We were on rising ground now. Up and up steadily we went. We reached the
top of the grade, when suddenly from out of the pit of darkness ahead of
us there came a high explosive shell. It dropped in the middle of our
battalion. It struck where the machine gun section was placed, and
annihilated them almost to a man.

Then it was that our mettle stood the test. Then it was that we proved the
words Canadian and Man synonymous. Not one of us wavered; not one of us
swerved to right or left, to front or back. We kept on. There was hardly
one who lost in step. The commanders whispered in the darkness, "Close up
the ranks." The men behind those who had fallen jumped across the bodies of
their comrades lying prone, and joined in immediately behind those in the
forward rows.

The dead and wounded lay stretched where they had fallen. Coming behind us
were the stretcher-bearers and the hospital corps. We knew our comrades
would have attention. This was a grim business. We pressed on.

There was a supreme test of discipline. It was our weighing time in the
balance of the world war, and we proved ourselves not wanting. We were
Canadians--that's all.

That afternoon the gas came over on us. The Germans put gas across on us
because they hated us most. It is a compliment to be hated by the Germans.
Extreme hatred from a German in the field shows that the hated are the most
effective. They hated the French most at first, they hated the Imperial
British, they hated us; they have hated the English again; soon, when the
United States comes to her full effectiveness, she will take her place in
the front rank of the hated.

We Canadians were a puzzle to them. When we went into the trenches at
first, the enemy would call across the line to us, "What have you come over
here to fight us for? What business is it of yours? Why did you not stay
back home in Canada and attend to your own affairs, and not butt into
something that does not concern you? If you had stayed at home in your own
country, WHEN WE CAME OVER AND TOOK CANADA, we would have treated you all
right. Now that you have interfered, we are going to get you some day and
get you right."

Yes; when they came over and took Canada. That was the very reason we were
fighting. We wanted to keep our own part of the empire for ourselves. It
is ours absolutely, and we had no intention that Germany should own it. We
knew exactly what the Hohenzollern